The magnetic train glided swiftly toward a massive, abandoned mining station in the heart of the mountain range to the west. The desert’s red sands had gradually given way to hard rock walls and cutting winds. As the car slowed, ancient runic symbols glowing above the enormous steel door at the end of the tracks caught their attention. The second seal was hidden in an underground ancient altar at the very heart of this mountain.
Elias and his team stepped off the car and drew in the cold mountain air. The data crystal in his backpack was responding to a violet light coming from deep within the tunnel. “This place is completely independent of AETHEL’s network,” the technician said, checking the scanner in his hand. “But there’s another energy signature inside. A much older, much rawer power.”
As they advanced into the tunnel, enormous mechanical and magical engravings carved into the walls greeted them. Elias gripped the circuit board in his hand tightly, because he knew the system protecting the second seal would not surrender easily, just as it had not in the first cathedral. When they stopped before an enormous circular door at the end of the dark corridor, a deep, mechanical gear grinding from within shattered the silence. Their journey had only just begun, and the mountain’s depths were filled with a new trial awaiting them.